Last week the Hillsborough County Commission voted 6-to-1 to raise park and mobility impact fees on new construction beginning in January. Commissioner Mariella Smith voted for the impact fees. “All the commissioners, almost all the commissioners, campaigned on the promise to make development pay its fair share of infrastructure and impact fees are the way… Read more »
WMNF NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Teacher-led rally Tuesday: return to schools only when it’s safe
Too Fantastic To Be True
Radioactivity Thursday: Meet Democratic candidate Alan Cohn
St. Petersburg takes a step to defund the police; instead of 25 officers, city will hire social workers
Radioactivity Wednesday: Trump campaign surrogate says consumer choice and Health Savings Accounts will fix the US healthcare problem
Online meetings this week on proposed Florida toll highways
Read MoreShould development pay for itself? A forum on the politics of growth in Florida
Read MoreCritics of "sham" toll roads through rural Florida form a coalition to fight them
Read MoreCity seeking public input on Imagine Clearwater plan for Coachman Park
Read MoreCarrollwood residents want to protect cypress wetlands from development
Read MoreFlorida toll roads task forces meet in Tampa; environmentalists say don't build them
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Neighbors in St. Pete want to save tree from developers
Read MoreTuesday rally in St. Pete to ask Florida governor to veto rural toll roads bill
Read MoreSaturday rally to "Save the Tides" in Pinellas
Read MoreConservation groups warn about proposed development in FL panther habitat
Read MoreFrom the Beaches to the Springs How Do We Protect Florida's Waters?
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Friends of Boyd Hill Nature Preserve oppose development proposal
The St. Petersburg Country Club is asking the city to change the zoning for four parcels of land near the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve in order to build homes on land next to its golf course; but supporters of the preserve want the city to deny the country club’s request because they say it’s important… Read more »
Residents worried St. Pete historic district development a sign of things to come
“The concern is if they allow these very large homes, basically, to come in and scrape off the historic homes in our small, basically, one-block historic district that they will not protect any of the historic districts and basically the city’s protections become moot and nobody has any protections from the development.”
Environmentalist wary of Mosaic moving corporate headquarters to Hillsborough
The giant fertilizer company Mosaic announced last week that it plans to move its corporate headquarters from Minnesota to Hillsborough County; the announcement by the Fortune 500 company was greeted by many local leaders with delight. But environmentalists, like Suncoast Waterkeeper Andy Mele, accuse Mosaic of being a detriment to the community. “I think Mosaic’s… Read more »
No decision yet on noisy shooting range’s request for rezoning
Residents of rural northwest Hillsborough County will have to wait a month to find out if they will get relief from what they say is the constant barrage of gunfire from a major shooting range nearby. The owners of the Silver Dollar shooting range want to rezone their property to permit three shooting stands that… Read more »
Residents struggle for quiet with shooting range near environmentally important land
In northwest Hillsborough County there’s a 400-acre chunk of land that environmentalists hope to save as a way to keep recharging the drinking water aquifer; Monday night in the Hillsborough County Center there’s a land use meeting, in part to talk about the future of this land near Keystone that also includes a shooting range…. Read more »
Rays president tries to sell St. Pete crowd on Ybor stadium
The Tampa Bay Rays hope to abandon St. Pete for a new baseball stadium in Ybor City and have much of it paid for with public funds; team co-president Brian Auld faced a Suncoast Tiger Bay Club crowd Thursday at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club and some members of the audience described themselves as feeling… Read more »
Environmentalists cite a new reason feds should reject road through Serenova: $150 million price tag
Environmentalists are hoping to save a wilderness preserve in Pasco County from being bisected by a new road; and now that the county’s budget has come out, supporters of the Serenova preserve say they plan to ask the feds to deny permitting because the cost estimate for the Ridge Road Extension has nearly doubled. WMNF… Read more »
Oak trees are torn down during construction of Publix at USF
Construction has begun on a Publix supermarket along the north edge of the University South Florida campus in Tampa; but an environmental advocate is concerned about how many old-growth oak trees have been destroyed. Louise Raterman is a USF alumna and lives near campus. “I was in the neighborhood and I suddenly saw equipment just… Read more »
Vote delayed on massive Manatee County bay-front development
Manatee County Commissioners have again delayed a vote on a massive coastal development called Aqua by the Bay; the latest special land use meeting began at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday and lasted into the early evening, when commissioners voted 6-1 to postpone a vote until September 29. The proposed 529-acre project along two miles of Sarasota… Read more »
Sarasota environmentalists oppose waste facility near Celery Fields
On MidPoint we talked about efforts by environmentalists to oppose a waste processing facility on public lands in Sarasota County near land known as the Celery Fields; community activist Adrien Lucas and Luigi Verace with Stand Up Fight Back SRQ are trying to stop the proposed waste processing facility. Listen to the whole show here:… Read more »
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- Transportation
Tampa’s Central Avenue: Central to Tampa History, Central to Tampa’s Transportation Future
Will the controversial TBX plan be revived? Central Avenue in Tampa is a storied place and its past, present, and future ties together African American history, police killings, walkable communities, and the future of transportation in the entire Tampa Bay area. A few months ago, residents living in Tampa’s central neighborhoods — Tampa Heights, Ybor… Read more »
Protest against Bradenton waterfront development
Environmentalists in Manatee County will protest a proposed Bradenton waterfront development tomorrow; Jane von Hahmann is a former Manatee County Commissioner and is the vice president of the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage, or FISH, in the village of Cortez. “First of all, understand that I live in the oldest commercial fishing village in the… Read more »
Rick Claypool with Public Citizen on Radioactivity Wednesday
Smart Cities Roundtable Friday, April 28 Smart cities. The internet of things. Greater connectivity. What does it all mean? And will it help improve our lives or will it lead to greater surveillance on citizens? There was a panel discussion this Friday at the University of Tampa (UT) to discuss the “smart city concept”. It… Read more »
